Lane, Watling Street, and St. John’s Lane, and a
shallow brick floor and hypocaust at Simon Langton’s Schools. on the
north—cast of High Street, in Burgate Street, several rooms with
tessellated floors, found opposite No. 54 Burgate Street, indicate an
extensive house. The only piece examined was a mosaic panel 4 ft. square,
of rather rude work, bearing the hackneyed design of a two-handled cup
framed inside an inner circle of braid—work (guilloche) and an outer
square border of lozenge pattern. In Sun Street and Guildhall Street
substantial walling seems to suggest two buildings not standing parallel
or at right angles to each other. Finally, at the north end of the
inhabited area, a tessellated floor points to a house near St. Alphege’s
Church. It is a brief list of twelve items. All are fragments. Only one
possesses individual interest. Durovernum plainly included comfortable
civilized houses fitted in Roman fashion. But so far as our present
knowledge goes, it compares ill with country towns like Cirencester,
Dorchester, or even Winchester.10
A. Remains found wider or immediately
adjacent to High Street, the Parade and St. George’s Street, described
from west to east.
(1) Opposite All Saints’ Church, Pillbrow found in 1867
a ‘fair face of a wall of solid masonry,’ 12 ft. long, running
in line with the street, built of squared stone on a concrete bed, 3 ft.
to 4 ft. below the surface (Arch. xliii, 154, no. 72). He took this
to be the west wall of the Roman town; Faussett thought it one side of a
medieval gate cut through the Roman wall and therefore indirect evidence
of its line (Arch. Journ. xxxii, 377), but he confused it with one
of the walls to be enumerated in (2). Its depth suggests that it is
medieval, but we know so little of it that conjecture is dangerous.
(2) Much has been recorded from that part of High Street
which lies between Stour Street (formerly Lamb Lane) and White Horse Lane.
In 1758 a mosaic, now lost but well known by drawings (p. 67), was
found only 3 ft. or 4 ft. underground, on the site now occupied by the
County Hotel; this mosaic is the same as that which Hasted ascribes to
Jewry Lane and the year 1739. Other fragments of tessellation appear to
have been noticed close by. We may connect therewith some discoveries made
in 1867-8 at the High Street end of Stour Street—walling as of a house,
Roman potsherds and coins, a gold pin, oyster-shells, and traces of
destruction by fire (Arch. xliii, 156). Under High Street itself,
in front of the County Hotel, Pillbrow cut three walls which crossed the
street at right angles—the first, 4 ft. thick, at 4 ft. east of Stour
Street; the second, of the same thickness, at 14 ft. east of the first;
the third 8 ft. thick and 15 ft. further on. The tops of these walls were
7 ft. below street level; their foundations were too deep to be reached.
About 20 ft. east of the third of these, in front of the Fleur-de-Lis
Hotel, came a fourth wall, 4 ft. thick, with shallower foundations; this
‘ended in a pavement of solid stone 12 in. thick,’ only 5 ft. below
the street surface, which extended to and up White Horse Lane (ibid. 154
nos. 73-6). Opposite the Fleur-de-Lis were discovered in 1861 some
architectural fragments in oolite, described by Mr. Brent as bases of
columns with ornamented cornices, whole in 8 or 10 instances,’ and again
as ‘bases of a cornice with chamfer moulding and three half-roll
mouldings,’ all, of course, now lost (Proc. Soc. Antiq. Ser. II,
i, 327; Arch. Cant. iv, 35; Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. xvii,
59; Cant. Olden Time, 11). Here also occurred a brick or tile
coffin of uncertain age (p. 79). Of these remains the mosaic is Roman; the
walling and architectural pieces were also taken by their discoverers to
be Roman, and their depth and position under the street support this view.
But their precise use is obscure. They lie too near the outside limit of
the inhabited area for public buildings; they are not near enough to it
for a gateway in the Roman town wall, and they are rather solid for a
private house. Possibly they belong to a small temple, but we know too
little even to guess here. The masonry noted under the County Hotel in
1895 seems post-Roman (Antiquary, xxxi, 37).
(3) Opposite the west end of St. Mary Bredman Church and
under High Street a ‘foundation’ consisting of flat heavy stones laid
on buff Roman tiles was seen in 1867-8; its age and construction are
doubtful. At the same time and opposite the east end of the same church
was found a large globular urn with small handles (25 in. high, 17 in.
diam., now in Worthing Museum) containing 41 coins, some of Carausius, but
mostly illegible (Arch. xliii, 155 nos.654., 55). Here, too,
in 186o were noted a ‘regular pavement of cement,’ an embossed Samian
bowl, a Samian saucer stamped CLEMEM, and some
flue tiles (Arch. Cant. iv, 36). A little eastwards, in front of
the Capital
10 Arch Cant. lxix, 166; V.C.H. Hants. i,
285
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